Sophos Network Protection for RED management soon to be mandatory
It is the case that you would need a Network Protection license for the REDs or SD-REDs on the Sophos Firewall. We also write this on the Sophos SD-RED product page.
The fact is, however, that although Sophos intended this to be the case, the license is still not factually required. RED Management has been running without the Network Protection license so far.
As Sophos itself writes, they intentionally refrained from enforcing the need for the license during the pandemic. However, in Q1 2023, they plan to disable RED management in the SFOS v19.0 MR2 and v19.5 MR1 updates if there is no valid Network Protection license.
FAQ
How can I check if I have a Network Protection license?
On the firewall in the menu under Administration > Licensing or on the top right in the menu under About product you can call the license page.
Here you can see if you have a valid Network Protection license.
I have a valid Network Protection license, what VPN features are included?
Site-to-Site (IPsec VPN, SSL VPN, RED Site-to-Site) incl. the management of REDs.
I do not have a valid Network Protection license, only the Base License, what happens now?
IPsec VPN, SSL VPN and RED site-to-site continue to work, all REDor SD-REDs can no longer be managed and lose connection to the firewall.
End-of-Life: RED 15(w) and RED 50
This post is about the REDand so it’s fitting to reference the end-of-life date again here, for the following models:
- Sophos RED 15
- Sophos RED 15w
- Sophos RED 50
On August 31, 2023, these appliances will go end-of-life and must be replaced with the new SD-RED 20 or SD-RED 60 models. All important End-of-Sale or End-of-Life dates are available in our Sophos Product Lifecycle Calendar.